Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s season of unrelenting misery and inexplicable failure continued at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, where Earnhardt finished 38th after a long, frustrating night on the track. The 88 team, which had been making progress the last few races, took a step backward in Charlotte. Earnhardt fought the handling on the AMP Energy Chevrolet all night and was lapped by Denny Hamlin on lap 107. On lap 126 transmission issues led to a stop in the garage for the 88 car, where someone should have shot it. Earnhardt reentered the race on lap 155. He finished 30 laps behind the leaders. NASCAR’s most popular driver’s losing streak now stands at 52 races.

The awful showing came on the same weekend that Earnhardt vented his frustrations and owner Rick Hendrick promised to fix the 88 team without specifying how he will do so.

On the bright side, none of Earnhardt’s fans robbed any banks last week. As far as I know.